


Smells Like Magic

by Zilentdreamer



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Contemplation, Gen, Humor, Magic, teenagers are weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-27
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-10 19:51:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zilentdreamer/pseuds/Zilentdreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah never thought that magic would have a scent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smells Like Magic

Sarah never thought that magic would have a scent.

It wasn’t obvious at first. In the beginning all she’d noticed were the looming stone walls of the Labyrinth and the way her heart pounded against her breast bone. She’d noticed the way time dragged and skipped, bunched together in a quick flashes only to stretch out into the distant future. 

She hadn’t really given the magic much thought, not until everything was over, her brother safe in his crib. She had loved reading about it, dreamed about the bright flashes and glittering arcs it traced through the air. In all her fantasies, she had never once stopped to consider what magic would smell like.

The memory of the scent never settled, always shifting. It would have bothered her to think about it too deeply, but if there was anything her experience had taught her, it was that magic was not bound by the laws of reality. It was something so much more than the human mind could explain.

Her opinion changed as time distanced her from her memories of the Labyrinth. At first it had smelled of the earth, rich with life and an extra tang that was _something else_. It had blended seamlessly with the rough walls and dank underground passages.

It smelled like the Goblin King.

Sarah paused in brushing her hair. She frowned, not liking the comparison her mind had drawn up. She didn’t want to think of the Goblin King as anything like magic. He was sneaky and obnoxious, cruel and tyrannical. 

But her mind insisted, and it compared magic to the rich scent of leather gloves and cold crystal. Sarah’s nose wrinkled. Did crystal even have a smell? More than that was the same earthy aroma that emanated from the heart of the labyrinth, a dark, feral scent that was the Labyrinth, Jareth, and magic all rolled up into one. 

Sarah giggled as she realized that she was essentially comparing Jareth to _dirt_. But it was magic dirt, so maybe he wouldn’t mind so much.

Then another thought occurred to her and she dropped her brush all together as her giggles morphed into outright laughter. If magic smelled like the Labyrinth, and the Labyrinth smelled like Jareth, then that meant that the Goblin King smelled like the Bog of Stench.

She could live with that.


End file.
